Physiotherapy or Medicine?

I am planning to go back to school in September to do either Physio or Medicine and I just wanted your thoughts. I want a meaningful job, I want to feel like I am truly impacting people's lives. I enjoy educating others. I would also like the opportunity to travel abroad, primarily in less developed countries to impact the people there as well. Which do you think is the better thing to do? I am 24 years old and I will turn 25 in July. I also did BSc in Pharmacy (BScPharm) in my undergrad.

Cheers,

Reply 1

nexttime

22

No jobs that fit your criteria from your current degree?

Tell us what you know about a career in medicine or physiotherapy. What does the training involve, what are the typical jobs life, etc

Reply 2

sherifd

OP

6

Original post by nexttime

No jobs that fit your criteria from your current degree?

Tell us what you know about a career in medicine or physiotherapy. What does the training involve, what are the typical jobs life, etc

Not really, I have found that pharmacy is not really the thing for me.

Well, I know that medicine generally branches into 2 categories; diagnostic doctors and surgeons. I don't really see myself in surgery because I don't feel that I have in me to cut people open and operate on them like that, but I am still keeping that option open. So if I choose medicine, I probably be the diagonistic type. I will probably specialise in Sports Medicine or Psychiatry.

I know physios generally do the work after the doctor has made the diagnosis although they have the power to diagnose themselves as well. If I choose this route, I would probably specialise in Sports Physio as well. I am currently doing more research to know more about the field though.

Reply 3

MrClarke

5

Original post by sherifd

I am planning to go back to school in September to do either Physio or Medicine and I just wanted your thoughts. I want a meaningful job, I want to feel like I am truly impacting people's lives. I enjoy educating others. I would also like the opportunity to travel abroad, primarily in less developed countries to impact the people there as well. Which do you think is the better thing to do? I am 24 years old and I will turn 25 in July. I also did BSc in Pharmacy (BScPharm) in my undergrad.

Cheers,

Physiotherapy. You still diagnose otherwise how do you know what you're treating? You're an autonomous practitioner. There is major scope for working in different areas. You can specialise in a field of physiotherapy such as respiratory, neurology or MSK - and many others. Open your own practice or rank up in the NHS to consultant level. Work in acute, primary care settings or in the community. Teach, travel, train, learn with the overall focus of improving the wellbeing of a patient.
I wanted to study medicine originally but after 2 friends had left the NHS as junior doctors based on the changes to their contracts, working 80+ hours a week, I reconsidered. Doctors are amazing though. I feel as though you need to be dead certain that you want to study medicine in order to pursue it as a career. Maybe get some shadowing experience and advise.
I worked for 2 years as a physiotherapist assistant and now studying the MSc Physiotherapy course. So all in all, 7 years of education (BSc - 3 years/ MSc 2 years) and training before being becoming a physio - hopefully. But you never know, might change my mind. You're entitled to it.

Reply 4

ahorey

10

I'm in both lol.

I studied physio and worked as a physio for a couple of years, then decided to apply to medicine. I actually got in (undergrad course, theres no way I would have via the gamsat route!!) and currently in 4th year. Quite a lot of my cohort from physio are ending up in medicine, one graduated last year, one is due to graduate this year and one just started 1st year. This is at only the one uni, and there are more from my cohort at other universities. From a recent medical placement I was talking to a recent physio grad has already considered applying to medicine because of the current atmosphere in physio. And he was lucky, he graduated this year and 80% of his year ended up in permanent band 5 (starting grade) posts - when I graduated only about 20% got permanent nhs jobs. Thing is, you can't really go private work until you get the training via nhs. Although granted it was one of the worst years to graduate as a physio as there simply were no jobs - I worked agency for NHS and ended up covering 7 month maternity slots etc.

Physio is great, but it depends on what you want to do. If you really want to help people and make a difference, I'd definitely look at neuro rehab. Rehab post stroke is one of the most rewarding areas to work in - if I hadn't got into medicine I was going down the neuro and potentially amputee/prosthetics route. MSK/sports is good and all, has the most potential for private work, but is one of the least rewarding I find. People seem to think that all physio do is give massages, they don't realise that they have to do some work too :P
Physio wise it is 3 years of uni with a mixture of clinical placements and lectures, obviously a lot of emphasis on practical elements. The physiology I was taught was so poor compared to medicine!! There tends to be slow progression in physio in moving up the bands, basic grades are band 5 and then you apply for band 6, which is were you could stay for a while. Not a bad thing but is just a bit longer as waiting for jobs to open up. The main routes in specialities tend to be MSK/Sports, Neuro, Paediatrics, Respiratory and community based. There are others but those would be the biggest ones. My friends who remained as physios do enjoy it, and you are regulated and tends to be quite a sociable career. Never get a physio started on chiropractors lol. One thing you must remember is that it is much harder to kill somebody in physio! Something I do miss :tongue:

I applied to medicine knowing that I had nothing to lose. 4 years later and I really enjoy it (except for the exams) as the scope of practice is huge. There are so many career options and even knowing that you are guaranteed a job once you finish is definitely nice as well lol.
I absolutely hate the question why did you do medicine instead of physio/why did you change - to be honest, i still don't really know that answer other than it felt right. That's probably the most answer from me, yes always was going to be healthcare based but medicine felt "more right" than medicine.
The amount of billshtters (not aimed at you, just from what i've come across in medicine) that say "really want to help people" - very few actually mean this. Sure most people want to help others, but I was already doing that in physio. Even those that come straight from school don't really mean it, usually it ends up as having a experience with a doctor in the past and wanting to be like them, or they didn't really know what they wanted to do and they were smart so school suggested medicine, engineering or law :P

Medicine is so different. My uni is all lectures years 1 & 2 with a bit of clinical placements. From years 3-5 you are out on clinical placements rotating through different specialities. There is definitely a higher standard of knowledge expected and workload is probably triple what I did each year in physio lol. But I'm hoping the reward is higher, I enjoy variety and definitely the practical side of things (no surprises from the physio) but I'm not a surgeon. I quite fancy Emergency medicine or GP at the moment. You either are a surgeon or not, but you will find that out when you do medicine.
At times I wonder why I went back to medicine, and why not do the easier life in physio. But I still feel medicine is a better fit for me.
You also work with all the AHP as a doctor and you can be therapeutic as well. Benefits of doing pharmacy beforehand is you will know how to prescribe or at least which drugs can't be given with others lol.

I'm probably rambling here, but Physio is a great career with probably a better life work balance earlier on. Opportunities are limited and progression in speciality training can be slow. Medicine doesn't have a great work life balance to start off with, but it does get better (or so I'm told). There are vast career options and opportunities, I am only learning about different options even now!! Progression is much faster in comparison i think.

Both will give you opportunity to travel abroad to 3rd world countries, they will also give you a chance to impact on peoples lives. Personally I think with a background in pharmacy you will be better suited to medicine, but thats a very generalist view.

Physiotherapy or Medicine?

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